Spring party ideas for activities

Spring Cleaning — Sound strange to do chores… at a party? Ah, but roping in your friends makes it more fun.

Perfect, too, if you’ve got old rooms in need of clearing – or that garden in need of digging.

To make it fun for friends, add an incentive to every task they do, like:

“Complete five tasks in an hour and you’ll win X."

“Whoever clears the flower beds in the fastest time wins Y."

Make sure not to give everyone the tasks you don’t want to do, like the dirty or heavy stuff. Do your share too.

Get Seed Planting — Again with friends, take the time to plant your garden. Divide your helpers into groups, e.g. Diggers, Planters, Heavy Lifters. Reward their help with wine and homemade cake.

Dig Out Your Parlor Games — Fresh, simple games, invented for Christmas, but really all-year-round fun. Easy way to relax.

Play Board Games — Chess, backgammon and scrabble. Or cards. Nothing too intense or competitive. A board game party is an easy idea when it comes to spring.

Throw a Spring Photo Scavenger Hunt — Prepare this the day before. Make sure everyone knows to bring a digital camera. Example items or tasks to find could include:

A newly-planted flowerbed

A miniature bird table

A person wearing bright yellow

Something freshly painted

A person singing

Spring party ideas for themes

Organize a Book Exchange Party — Invite your friends to swap unwanted reads or books finished that won’t be read again. Books can be traded by genre (e.g. A comic book exchange, a vampire romance exchange). Or hold a mini book fair.

Alternatively, host a mystery book exchange. This time, wrap each book in newspaper or tissue paper, and present each one, as a gift, without guests knowing what’s underneath.

You won’t know what you’ll get, until you do it, so make sure you have a car/van on hand, to anticipate any heavy items.

Dress your helping friends in fun overalls, to give a party vibe to the activity.

Accompany the collecting with a door-to-door lunch you can offer your neighbours. Include homemade sandwiches and pop, cakes, fruit slices and finger food.

Throw an Outdoor Cinema Party — Hang a large white cloth between two trees, or posts of a fence, or along the clothes line. This cloth is your viewing screen, and you can project onto it, using a movie projector or your laptop.

Make sure you have a good speaker system set up, so everyone can hear. Arrange folding chairs in a horseshoe formation around the cloth. Prepare snacks, drinks and food on a nearby table.

If you’re watching at night, hang fairy lights between the trees and plants.

Hold a Pavement Party — Ditch the garden and house, and instead throw your party on the pavement (sidewalk) outside (or on your driveway).

Like a normal picnic, lay out a rug for seating and prepare a picnic hamper.

Don’t forget your stereo player for some tunes.

Throw a Clothes Swap Party — Shake out each other’s wardrobes of unused or under-used clothes. Anything not swapped is bagged for those Goodwill stores.

Spring party ideas for food

For any of the ideas above, consider providing lunch or dinner to the mix. There are two ways to eat with your spring party.

Leftovers

Maybe there was something you intended to eat last year but forgot all about.

Check the use-by dates for everything first, before using though. Throw out anything with mould or just looks/smells/tastes dodgy.

Prepare the food in different ways, like:

Grilling the meats and veg, with herbs and oil, wrapped in foil (be careful when opening, as the foil will be hot).

Got old bread? Lightly fry it in olive oil and eat hot with butter.

Cut up hard bread and use as croutons in soup

Got old cakes? Serve warm with hot custard or syrup.

Uneaten food? Give it to the birds or badgers or the compost.

Introduce seasonal eating

Use the Spring element, to teach your guests how to eat seasonally.

In this case, to eat produce only grown in the Spring – and grown locally rather than imported. Examples of spring-only foods include: